Roz Bizilla– Rice with peas

Rice is a huge part of the Middle Eastern diet. This particular dish is very tasty with cinnamon and allspice. It is usually eaten with plain yogurt or a yogurt salad which I have listed under salads. I am using basmati rice here but the traditional choice would be short grain rice. I am using basmati because I have a huge bag and it is easy to work with. Make sure you measure and have the right amount of water when cooking the rice. If you use a different rice use the amounts listed on the package directions! Also season it according to your taste, the salt is an estimate!

Ingredients

1/2 pound ground beef

1 cup frozen peas

2 cups basmati rice

6 cups water

olive oil

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 to 2 tsp. salt or to taste

Directions

In a large pan, fry beef until well done. Add spices and water. Bring water to a boil and add peas.

Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add a spoon of Olive oil. Measure rice and rinse according to package directions if needed. This is the only potentially tricky part to this rice–At this point we need to have 4 1/2 cups of broth to cook the rice. We also need to have the beef and peas with that but not counted in with the broth measurement!  After cooking this mixture as listed above, the broth might have decreased, this is why I added more water initially. So make sure we have around  4 1/2  cups of the broth and the beef and peas as well before adding the rice. Bring measured broth to a boil and add the rice. Boil for 5 minutes, cover and turn heat to medium, cook for 10 minutes, turn to low and cook 10 more minutes. When rice is done stir gently so it does not stick to pan.